I have a large TBR pile
According to my Goodreads shelves, which are usually pretty up to date, I have:
- 206 books that I own and would like to read at some point
- 260 books that I don’t own but would like to purchase
- 21 books that are not yet released that I’m keeping an eye on
That’s almost 500 books that I want to read. And actually, that’s probably a pretty small number compared to other bloggers out there.
If you consider that I’m constantly adding more to this list as new books get released, I can’t possibly keep up with them all. I need some way to limit down my choices and decide which ones to actually pick up, and which ones to pass on.
I’ve become a picky reader
When I’m thinking about reading or buying a new book, the first thing I do is check Goodreads for the overall average rating and for the average rating among my friends. If most of my friends are giving the book somewhere around three stars, I probably won’t bother reading it.
Limiting myself to books that get a lot of 4 and 5 stars is just one method I use to limit down my choices to help make my TBR pile more manageable.
I feel a bit bad, but…
I feel a bit bad, but when you have a huge TBR pile you have to limit your choices somehow. For me, I keep thinking,
Exceptions to every rule
Of course there are a few exceptions. If I get a book for review, I usually feel more obligated to at least try it out, even if most of my friends give it three stars. But if most of my friends give it one or two stars, then I usually pass on it, even if it was a review book!
If I got the book for free, I will read 2 or 3 stars book my friends have rated. I have often loved books others have disliked or felt blah about. But when I buy books, I restrict to 4-5 books as well.
I can understand perfectly why you need to have some kind of system in place to limit what takes up your time because the sheer volume of books that are released is overwhelming without even considering those that have already been released! I wouldn’t buy a product that had a bad review so why would you read a book that people don’t enjoy or that is average.
My reader friends have different preferences (I’m the picky one) so I will look at their ratings but not let that influence my own reading too much. But if, say, a usually positive friend rates a book two stars, I know I should probably skip it.
My method of keeping my TBR down is going through it every once in a while, and if I can’t remember based on the cover/title/author why I wanted to read it I take it off.
Since i’ve started blogging i’ve become a very picky reader. I learning to pick up four or five star books now to make my life easier. With such a large TBR pile and little time to read i want to serouisly enjoy every book i read! I understand shy you have this system in place and completely agree with it.
Though I will read lower average rated books, I’m definitely more inclined to lean towards those that earn the 4-5 star rates. There’s just not enough time to settle for mediocre. And there are so many fantastic books out there!
This is a big reason why I recently made changes in my book choosing method. I was choosing books, based on what others were rating them, and was also usually only picking 4/5 star books. But, I was missing out on a lot of great books by doing this.
Last week I read three books that I randomly picked off of the library shelf. I ended up loving all of them and if I still rated books (which I’ve also stopped doing), I would have given each one 4-4.5 stars. But, I just peeked at Goodreads and all three of these books had a rating in the 3 star range. With my old system I never would have given these books a chance, and I would have missed out. Deleting my TBR list and getting away from paying attention to ratings has been one of the best things I could do as a reader 🙂
I have tons of books on my shelves that have been rated by friends as a 4 or 5 star book, but I still don’t feel the need to pick them up. I don’t know why this is the case. Maybe because it doesn’t speak to me at that moment. I do read 3 star books, I don’t mind. Maybe I like them better than my friends did, who knows?!
Nowadays, I do the same, which is a shame, because before I started blogging, or more like before I started using Goodreads consistently, I had read book under 4 starts as well, and I had enjoyed almost all of them.
My tbr pile is quite a lot smaller than yours, but I can still be picky depending. I’d rather read books that I know I’m going to enjoy or really want to read, and I tend to only request advanced copies of ones I’m interested in, since I don’t get any randomly sent to my house.
If it’s a book that I’m already interested in and some friends rate it 3 stars, I’m still going to want to give it a try. If it’s a lot lower of a rating and I see a lot of people sticking with that, I probably won’t read it. I tend to get most of my books now from the library so at least it’s not hurting my wallet as much.
You know, I don’t really choose which books I’m going to read that way (although definitely it’s a good system). To be honest, although I read tons of book blogs, very few affect what I will or won’t read. I usually already have an idea of what books I want to read. I definitely hear about new books on blogs and add them to my TBR, but otherwise that’s it.
And I actually like reading 3-star books. I think they can be great transition books. I also like to see for myself how I feel. There are definitely times when I read a book that so many people loved that I felt so-so about. And there are also times when I read and love a book that other people only had mediocre feelings about.
I try not to look at ratings before I read something that’s a review book. I don’t want to have expectations. If its a read for fun book I might be more selective-but maybe I’m crazy, I just feel kind of haunted by the books on my TBR list. Like I must have wanted to read them enough to put them on the list so they deserve a chance. yes, I’m crazy. and I have 1200+ books on that list.
I do the exact same thing! But I usually pick books that have a rating of over 3.5, after having a brief skim of the reviews to see if most of my friends have liked it. I’d rather read a book that judging by common opinion, is great, than read something that is most probably not. On rare occasions, if I like the sound of the blurb despite the poor rating, I might still give the book try. But this is not to say that this is a fool proof method. There have been a number of exceptions too, when I’ve hated books with high ratings and loved books that others have disparaged.
I do this mostly for books that I know I dont request from a publisher, though. For those, I tend to look only at the rating before requesting in the interest of not being influenced.
But lol it’s nice to know there’s someone else out there who does the same thing as me. I thought I was the odd one out!
I actually don’t even look at ratings from friends when deciding whether to read a book. I’m more likely to add a book to my TBR if I see a lot of high ratings, but if it’s already there, lower ratings won’t make me skip it. It’s probably odd, but other bloggers’ opinions don’t matter that much to me when selecting what I want to read. Maybe if they’re review mentions some trope/cliche/etc that I hate, then I’ll likely skip that book, but otherwise, I’m on my own.
I have mix feelings about GoodReads ratings. When there are less than a hundred on a book, the rating is definitely not reliable (thanks Mom and friends for the 5 stars :D). When they are hundred of thousands, it’s not reliable either (didn’t prove reliable to me at least). I feel like it’s more reliable for books that were published a while ago and that are not huge commercial success.
I do check or classic Sci-Fi books for instance, and probably would stay away from books < 3.7.
For recent books, it doesn't matter. I have a Fantasy eARC rated 2 at the moment on GoodReads and I still plan to give it a try.
I’m really picky as well. I used to read just any book, whether it had great reviews or not, but I just got out of a 2 month reading slump and I’d really rather not return to it because I read an iffy book. So as of late I’ve been really picky about what I read, and I’m only reading books I *know* I’m going to really enjoy. Sometimes I worry it makes my ratings look flimsy (like I’m just handing out 4 or 5 stars left and right), but I really do consider a rating before I give it, and I’ve just been lucky enough to read books I enjoy lately.
Ohh, great post topic. For me if a books average rating is under 3 then I won’t pick it up, if it’s under 3.5 then I may be a little hesitant to buy it, but even then I still may pick it up. Although as my shelves keep getting more and more filled up, I do think I will start incorporating something like that into my ‘buying books rule’. (:
Great post with valid points. Though, sometimes I find the books with few, yet low ratings are actually really good. So, though I do take rating into some consideration, I more a read what I feel like reading. If the summary really grabs me or I like the author, I go for it. 🙂
P.S. I don’t know if you noticed, but Goodreads hasn’t been updating a lot of their stats. The graphs are frozen on many books such as Evertrue and other pages aren’t averaging all the ratings.
I have A LOT of books on my TBR list so I’m slowly working my way through it but if I do see my friends gave it 3 stars or less I’m like, ‘hmm…should I read this?’ If I have a 4+ star book on my kindle then I’ll read that first and then check out the 3 star. I give every book a chance though so I’ll check out what other readers are saying about it too.
I do the same thing! I own so many unread books, plus the ones in by TBR list that I’ve become very picky. I also feel like I review only books that have 4-5 stars, but I tend to read books that I fully expect to love.
Most of my friends aren’t readers, so I rely a lot on Kirkus. If it’s awarded the Kirkus star, it goes straight to my TBR pile 😀
I definitely think that makes sense. If the majority of other readers find the book amazing, I’ll tend to continue to keep it on my TBR. If people are finding it to be “meh”, then likely I will too, so why bother, right?
I still read books that others might have given a 3 star, because I have yet to find someone who has extremely similar and eclectic taste like I do. So… I understand your premise, and glad it works for you, but I usually see what my friends are loving, take it with a grain of salt, and do my own thing. Maybe why I don’t have a lot of followers on my blog compared to others. Readers never know what to expect from me!
{By the way, Ashley just migrated my blog from blogger to her own server for hosting with a WP theme she made, and wow! I am so happy with it, she was so quick and professional and helpful! Shout out to Ashley and her Creative Whim, if anyone is looking for either web design or helpful hosting}
For me, it depends on the book. If i like the sound of the book, i check out the reviews. Not just the ratings, but what people are saying. Mostly, i seek out the lower-rated reviews. I read what people didn’t like about a book. This helps me figure out if what other people disliked is something that i also won’t like. For example, if people say they didn’t like it because there wasn’t enough description, or there was too much dialogue or not enough romance… i assume that i will like the book!
I’ve done this for a while. I have thousands of books on my TBR list on Goodreads. When I see something interesting, I just add it to the list. When it comes to actually picking it, though? I check other bloggers’ ratings. If it’s less than four stars, I don’t bother. And if I’m looking at other blogs to get suggestions, I never even add anything to Goodreads that a favorite blogger rated below four stars. Like you said, I’d rather read something great than something okay.
I’m sharing this with my newsletter tomorrow, Ashley! I love the discussion. I find generally I only read books I know I will enjoy but lately there are a few I’ve picked up in genres I do not typically read that have really surprised me.
I totally get this. I’m in the same boat with a ton to read and what to read first. I sort of just go through a thing before picking a book… what genre I’m in the mood for, then what the rating is and then I read a few reviews to see if it’s what I feel like reading.
As far as buying books the only physical books I buy now are ones that continue with a set I’ve already started or authors I know I’m going to want to have, and ebooks 4-5 star ratings only (maybe the odd 3.5 IF the reviews are good). I may be missing out on some great books this way, but what do you do?
I don’t really buy any physical books anymore. But that’s largely down to a lack of space in my apartment. I buy all ebooks. 🙂